Another Australian author, Charlotte Wood, does not shy away from ecological themes in her critically acclaimed text The Natural Way of Things. A novel that provokes anger, unease and repulsion, among other mixed emotions, this work of what some would call horror (although not of the supernatural kind) is based […]
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Birder Murder Mystery Series, Steve Burrows
Steve Burrows has travelled the world on birdwatching adventures. He’s turned his passion into an award-winning crime series. His latest, A Shimmer of Hummingbirds, takes police inspector Domenic Jejeune on a birding trip to the rainforest, where he hopes to uncover clues about his fugitive brother’s manslaughter case. –CBC Books […]
Read MoreWhat Remains, Angie Abdou
“I was going to write a typical ghost story but it will be more about the way we are haunted by our ancestors mistakes – environmental and genocidal,” said Abdou. “I’ve been collaborating with the Ktunaxa to get to use their name and their language. That’s been very interesting.” Abdou’s […]
Read MoreWide as the Wind, Edward Stanton
The book trailer has me hooked! The lyrical tale of a boy, a girl, their island, and how they saved it. -Goodreads Wide as the Wind is quest fiction to enthrall readers young and old. When Vaitéa is ravaged by war, hunger and destruction, it falls upon Miru, the 15-year-old […]
Read MorePiano Tide, Kathleen Dean Moore
“For a long time I’ve been writing books and speeches and harangues about stopping climate change and extinctions, and it’s all been very abstract, and I’ve been saying really abstract things like ‘stand strong against the corporate plunder of the planet,’” Moore said. “And it seemed to me I really […]
Read MoreAmerican War, Omar El Akkad
This award-winning journalist, until recently with The Globe and Mail, turns to fiction with a debut novel set in a not-too-distant America – ravaged by environmental calamities, dwindling resources and population displacement – that has fractured and descended into a second civil war. Considering the country’s current political and social […]
Read MoreJagannath, Karin Tidbeck
Enter the strange and wonderful world of Swedish sensation Karin Tidbeck with this feast of darkly fantastical stories. Whether through the falsified historical record of the uniquely weird Swedish creature known as the “Pyret” or the title story, “Jagannath,” about a biological ark in the far future, Tidbeck’s unique imagination […]
Read MoreThe Spawning Grounds, Gail Anderson-Dargatz
Sharp imagery and spare dialogue are put to good use in Gail Anderson-Dargatz’s ghost tale of a mysterious force intent on destroying a family in rural British Columbia. The Globe and Mail The long-awaited new novel by the two-time Giller-shortlisted author is full of the qualities Gail Anderson-Dargatz’s fans love: […]
Read MoreThe Risen, Ron Rash
During our conversation on the eve of Rash’s trip to France for an Eco-Literature convention, where the theme was “Enchantment,” he tells me that “One thing that’s important for me in my work is to remind people that there is a natural world. It’s very easy to think we are […]
Read MoreJesus and Magdalene, João Cerqueira
Thanks to João Cerqueira for information about his novel Jesus and Magdalene, published by Line by Lion Publications in July 2016. It is available for order at Amazon. The novel won the silver medal at the 2015 Latino Book Awards with the original title A segunda vinda de Cristo à […]
Read MoreI Will Send Rain, Rae Meadows
A book about Oklahoma in the 1930s demands a spare, harsh style to match the landscape. “I Will Send Rain” obliges with a grim portrait of a family weathering the Dust Bowl as naggingly evocative as grit in your mouth. The New York Times, “The Shortlist / Eco-Fiction” Annie Bell […]
Read MoreSurfacing, Margaret Atwood
Though this is an older book, we have plenty of early literature to add to dragonfly.eco, and I was reminded of this novel when reading an article in the India Tribune. Surfacing is a work permeated with an aura of suspense, complex with layered meanings, and written in brilliant, diamond-sharp […]
Read MoreA Pale View of Hills, Kazuo Ishiguro
Kazuo Ishiguro’s first novel is one of my favorites: the tale of Etsuko, a Japanese woman living in the English countryside, unraveling the suicide of her eldest daughter. Woven throughout is another tale, set in a suburb of Nagasaki several years after the end of World War II: Etsuko, then […]
Read MoreDance of the Coyote, Bill Hotchkiss
Discover Dance of the Coyote Back to the new Discover feature I became enamored of Bill Hotchkiss accidentally. I was looking for a good book once, roaming the eerily silent aisles of the Undergrad Library at Purdue University (the library was in a basement, and hardly anyone ever was there!)–when […]
Read MoreThe World Without Us, Mireille Juchau
The World Without Us is a beautifully told story of secrets and survival, family and community, loss and renewal. -Goodreads Part of Juchau’s success emerges from the delicacy of her evocations of the natural world. Another part arises from her wry observations of the way people behave and interact. But […]
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